 So we are recording to the cloud everything that is said and happens during this meeting will be part of the official record that gets posted to the town of Amherst YouTube channel. My name is Angela Mills I work for the town manager Paul Bachman and I apologize to everyone that this meeting is getting started late. And I am now making Michelle Miller the host of this meeting and thank you Michelle. Thank you so much Angela have a great night. Thanks you too. Hi, Van. Hi, I guess I was having some trouble trying to figure out what's going on, but okay. Unfortunately there was a little bit of a glitch in who was starting the meeting because the press forum is happening right now. So, but that's Angela just came to save the day and we're here now. Herb and Hala nice to see you both. Oh, just lost her I think. Herb was having trouble connecting so I don't know if he's sort of having some Wi Fi issues or something. So we'll wait. We can't start the meeting until there are four of us here so we need herb to come back. Let me see here. Thank you. And I was waiting in the, I signed on at seven, but I was waiting till the, you know, yeah, I did, I did both Chris and here. Hey, Ivan, I saw your daughter today. Oh, we are recording. That's okay. No, she's amazing. She was part of project 2050. She's just phenomenal. That's wonderful. Like her mama. I know I missed seeing you, Ivan. I'm so happy you're here. I feel like because just the way that we've been only meeting every other week, I feel and I don't think you were here at the last meeting. Yeah, I had missed the last one. Yeah, that's true. Felt like forever. Can you guys hear me okay I'm using a different setup and we got you. Okay, all right, this is a mic, my spare mic because I left the other one. I couldn't find it anyway I'm all set. Hi. All right, I'm going to go ahead because Irv can, are you here, can you hear us. I can hear you guys. I know it sounded like you're having some connectivity stuff if somehow we lose you, we won't be able to make any decisions, because we will not have a quorum at that point so we'll, we'll do our best here. And so I am just going to pull up the agenda so I can call this meeting to order. Was this a special meeting that was shorter or something was that what I read in the email. Because Cress was having a forum tonight, we decided to sort of give them the max so that we could attend both essentially if we wanted to. Okay, they started at six. So we pushed our meeting back a half an hour to give extra time and I did some folks were there at the at the Cress forum I was there and I was there yeah. Okay. Yeah, so let me alright let's see here. I am calling to order the Thursday, January 20, 2022 meeting of the African heritage reparation assembly pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 this meeting will be conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via zoom or by telephone see instructions below. No in person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately accept access the proceedings in real time via technological means. And so we will just do a quick review here of the agenda we do not have any minutes that are ready to be reviewed and voted on and approved yet or tonight so tonight we're going to begin with our meeting etiquette reminder. We will then talk about the town council requests that are coming Monday at Monday's meeting and sort of the discussion that's going to happen at Monday's full town council meeting. And then we have the Amherst cultural council grant and our documentary project and an update about that and suggestions and a review of our resources page on our website. And then if we want to do a little unpacking of the Cress forum if people would like to talk about that. So I'm just going to pause there and see if there are any questions about the agenda tonight or any other matters. Did you have a question. No. Okay. All right. So now I will check to see if there is any public comment and there doesn't appear to be anybody here in the attendees so that means I don't even have to read the public comment statement. So moving right along. We have presentations this evening. And so let's get started just calling to our mind our meeting etiquette and just sort of taking a moment to reflect on that. I could use a moment here. And so let's get right into the meat of our discussion tonight and beginning with the town council. Okay, we have an attendee. Okay. Mara, I just finished public comment, because there wasn't anyone here for public comment. If you would like to make public comment, go ahead and raise your hand. And then I'll certainly I'll read the statement and let you in for public comment. If not, no worries. I'll just wait a second. Yes, Hala. Before the public statement is read, perhaps I reached out to the town manager, the assistant DEI and the chair of the town council that we remove the word preferred in terms of pronoun I reached out to the larger community. And preferred implies a choice and for many it's not a choice so if we could not say preferred pronoun, because it's almost like preferred height. I want to be 510 but I'm actually five five so I just would hope that we could eliminate that word in our work to just say pronoun. Absolutely. Absolutely. Excellent point. Thank you. And I'll make sure from here on out that it's out of our agendas as well. I think they're going to make a change in the town they they thought it was like a viable idea to reduce harm. Awesome. That's great. Thank you. It's so amazing how you know it's not little but how seemingly little things can make such a big difference, you know, so thank you. All right, so I just want to again apologize if folks were not aware that this meeting began at seven I did send an email out with some information. And I apologize if anyone did not receive that. So, all right, we're going to begin by, I'd like to give you a little bit of background about what's going to happen at Monday's Town Council meeting and sort of what has happened as part of a discussion about bringing the recommendations to the town council on behalf of the HRA. So on Monday, I will be asking the town council to extend our charge to June 2023, which is something that this body has already approved and so now we'll be taking that step to formalize it with the town council and hopefully they will approve the extension. I've included our work plan or strategic plan in their packet so hopefully they'll have a chance to review that. And it will give me a little opportunity to sort of lay the foundation for the full town council with respect to what we've been up to and why we're asking for this extension. And they'll have had a chance up until this point they wouldn't have seen necessarily unless they were following our meetings, they wouldn't see our work plan that that that we're working with so I will keep everyone posted please feel free to tune in during that time if you're available, I'll do my best to remember to send out the agenda for that meeting to HRA so you can get in. So the question is about just that aspect of our my request on Monday. Okay. All right. Oh, good. Okay. All right, so sort of part of the discussion that I've been having having with the town manager and with our town council president is in relation to sort of proactive measures might we want to begin to take now, in particular, if we are going to seek special legislation. Might we want to begin that process now given what we know about how long it takes and sort of the there are many competitive bills that are that are trying to go through a legislative process. And so, as part of that discussion, I had an opportunity to meet with KP law with a representative from KP law to review the three options that KP law advised we had with respect to distributing reparations so we know we can we can take in money but how do we get it out legally. So I just I'd like to bring up those three options from the KP law opinion, so that we can review them together and I can share with you what I learned from from the lawyer so I'm going to go ahead and share my screen and see if I do this right. Let's see. All right, here we are can you all see that. Okay, and I might be able to zoom it a little I don't know. Does that zoom up a little for you. Okay. So, there are three paths that KP law recommended for us with respect to distributing reparations when that time comes. First, so actually, let me let me just before we got to go through and you can take a moment to read through these as well. The first to involve working with another like a third party in order to distribute the reparations. The third option and the option that KP law felt was our cleanest and sort of best path is for the town of Amherst to seek home rule special legislation. As we talked about in our last meeting, a bit to basically define reparations as a public purpose and set forth some basic rules as as how to how such funds will be held expended and accounted for. Um, it's so it's important to note that that is the only pathway of these three options that would keep the sort of process of distributing the funds within the town without going to an outside source. And I highly recommend reading this it's in the packet from I think our second or third week, read it through and you'll get a really good sense of why, why we have to take one of these paths because of public purpose laws in the state of Massachusetts and anti aid laws. That's sort of the basis and the foundation for these recommendations. So what I've been discussing with Lynn and Paul is if we are going to pursue the special home rule legislation, do we want to begin that process now. And so that we don't get through to the end of our process and then have to start that and wait another 121624 months who knows how long this way we get it going and it also sort of sets up. It sets up a structure for the African heritage community to be able to design the reparations program, knowing that this is sort of in the works and already so it's not like you design it and then your and then and then we're told, you know, we can't do this we have to do this. So, just to kind of give you a little bit of background on what Lauren from KP law offered with respect to the other options. These are actually viable options. So, they would include making a grant, essentially the town would be making a grant to an outside organization. And they would do that by putting an RFP out that would specify the type of organization that they were looking for to to establish that grant relationship with some potential. There's potential positives to that. And in that, you know, seeking special legislation is certainly going to take some time there we may come up, you know, against some challenges to do that. Whereas these other pathways may be a little quicker. However, we may not have full sort of we may not be able to have that organization that accepts the grant be all people of African heritage, for example, which is something that you would want to consider and think about. We're still in discussions about this and I wanting to report back to you as I receive information about what the town feels is the best way to approach this but I think there was a sense of support for the third pathway. One of the things that I'm going to do at the town council meeting to sort of prime my colleagues is to let them know that we are talking about this process and will likely come to them in the near future to give. They'll need to approve this and direct the town manager to begin working on it with KP law so they'll be writing the bill with ours with our support and with our collaboration. So let me just pause there and see what questions you all have about about that. So just our any sort of, I know we've all talked about the, let me just make sure nobody's here because I'm managing a couple different things here. I think I unfortunately need to stop this quickly to make sure. Okay, Jen's here. All right, let me, let me promote Jen to a panelist here. Hi Jennifer. I have a different experience. I just never come in. I'm never attending a meeting. That was like completely different. Oh wait, nobody can see me and you guys don't have a quorum. Do you. We do. We do for a bus is a quorum right. Yeah. So I think I mean, we should check in with Paul about that I mean either way you can keep having this meeting as long as you're not making any like final decisions. There are only seven of us on this committee. Is that correct? Yeah, four is we meet our definitely is a quorum. Yeah, and I hope so Jennifer because we've been making decisions as a quorum before for the whole time. Yeah, I think we're okay because we're, we're even though we only have six members we have to we go by the seven. So, I think we're good, but I will definitely talk with Buckleman and do town manager Buckleman and just make sure. Well, it can help to put a little bit of pressure so that we can get some additional, you know, that other additional member that were. Dilling. Yeah, exactly. And just so you know I'm sorry I didn't bring you in immediately am I I was screen sharing and I couldn't see both things at the same time so. So, okay, are there any questions with respect to the three pathways. Are there any comments. Please earth. You know, any legislative process is fraught with all kinds of challenges. And one never knows where they're going to go doesn't mean we might not want to start it, but I myself don't put a lot of hope in it, because there are so many things that could derail this. It gets into the legislative process a thing could get into committee and die in committee. Anyway, just to do a lot of different things and the thing that I would want to emphasize because if we do this, one of the first questions are going to be well. What harm has been done, which is something we're supposed to be exploring. Secondly, who has been hard. Third of those people harm, who are the ones who are eligible. Before we put this into that process we need to answer those questions. So just to respond to that we I specifically spoke with Lauren about how detailed this home rule would need to be and just to differentiate. It's not to say that a home rule doesn't take some time to get through the process. A home rule takes should take less time than a new bill of if a new bill like if, for example, like Mindy talked about last time. If we were to introduce a bill to create a CPA like model that would be available statewide that will definitely take time. But if a town is saying, we want this as a rule and the town council has approved that that usually has a speedier pathway to it. So just to point that out. I think that when the charter, one part of the charter had to go through the home. Yes, as I remembered it and it didn't and you're correct it didn't take that long. It might have taken three months but that was about it. It really depended upon whoever's in charge of those committees getting it on the floor and getting it out. That's right. That's exactly. So again, I really would like us to answer those questions that I just raised before not before but in but parallel to that submission. Absolutely or absolutely and Lauren emphasized that we do. In fact, we want to be broad and flexible enough in our bill in our special legislation. We don't have to have all the questions answered. But as you are saying, we need to be working on answering them simultaneously. And so that is exactly what the advice was with respect to that and to kind of because you brought up the harm piece. I think it's okay that and Dr. Shabazz is not here, but I can sort of update you with respect to where we're at with the harm report. So, Dr. Shabazz at our last meeting offered to be the person that would coordinate with Metia Kramer, who was the researcher that reparations framers worked with to produce the first two research reports. We had the opportunity to meet today and and to talk about basically very foundationally what we have already agreed upon in terms of how that harm report is going to be developed. And part of this has to do with the Dunahue Institute and the work that the Dunahue Institute is going to do in developing the black census. And I think Irvin I are happy to report that that has that scope of work has been approved by town manager and is underway and in fact will begin actually being developed on February 1. So, part of what we're hoping to do with the Dunahue Institute is to detail to them what we're actually trying to do with this harm report so that when they begin the work. They have a really good understanding of what what we're actually trying to do. And it's and I know that there's already been a discussion between you and and and the Dunahue Institute, with respect to that. So just sort of yes please even. Can you email me that document we were just looking at. Is it possible. Yes, it sure is absolutely I will email it's in our packet but I when we are finished with this meeting. I will email it to everybody. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. So it's the KP law. Legal memorandum that I think was in like our third week or second week's packet that I can certainly email it after. It might have been it might have been before my time. I think it was. Yeah. Yeah. So, and just to sort of also answer another question that I think you were pointing to her. Even in the worst case scenario for some reason that the home rule didn't make it through the process, because to be quite honest with you. When you start talking about special legislation, it's all political at that point. It really is a political process. And so, as we know, and we're hoping to change this with our education and our engagement process but reparations has a challenging landscape attached to it with respect to politics and so. So, but even if that were to happen, I will say that the other two pathways that were recommended by KP law are still options so we wouldn't be unable to distribute the funds. It's just that it's been advised that this will sort of be the cleanest way to do it. I'm assuming that we are not going to be one dimensional on this that we're going to pursue all three of those avenues. I think that might be something that AHRA really wants to dive into. Because, like I said, with pursuing the other avenues, we do have to grant the money would money would have to be granted to a third party organization. Depending on how the AHRA feels about that and what that might look like and all that but I do think we need to have an a thorough conversation about that curve. And to be multi dimensional and flexible as you said. I think that's key to this because otherwise, you know, we definitely, I can, I, I, my sense is that Evanston having recently distributed their first 16 reparations benefits. We are already facing some legal challenges. And so I think what we can learn is that anything we can do to avoid that, and to create an open pathway and channel for funds to be distributed. We want to be proactive in that. So before we move on to the next item on our agenda, I just want to make sure that there aren't any other comments or questions about what my role will be at the town council meeting on Monday when this comes up at the agenda. Halla or even everyone good. All right. Good. Okay. Yeah, I couldn't get my mic on. All right, so we are then going to move on here. Okay, the Amherst cultural council grant and the documentary project. So as you know, we have received a $500 grant from the Amherst cultural count cultural council for our documentary project, which was very exciting given we applied basically on the last day. And our application was certainly not as thorough as I would have liked it to be, but I spoke with the chair of the Amherst cultural council and it was clear they supported our work and they wanted to. They wanted that to reflect in an award to us in this, this cycle. An additional piece of information. Rep Dom connected me with Brian boils, who is the executive director of mass humanities. And if you look in the packet, in fact, let's see how quickly I can find the packet. Let me see here. Did everyone have a chance to review the packet and see. Okay, so I don't I don't necessarily okay. Well, you can go back and take a look at it. But I put in there the strategic plan for mass humanities. I wanted to see to talk with Brian and to share with him what we were trying to accomplish. And what really struck me in the, in the mission of mass humanities. So you may know the Frederick Douglas program that's that the reading that is happening in many towns throughout the state of Massachusetts including Amherst. And it was mass humanities that funded that program. And it was apparently this year and Jennifer might know more but it was I wasn't able to be there but it was like 500 people and the South Amherst Commons or something like that that, or a lot of people came together for that so Brian was really interested in in what we are doing and he recommended a particular grant that he thinks would be a very good option for us. That's going to be released February 1. And of course, let me just see if I can find in my notes I think it's called something like let me just see if I can find it here. So many, so many notes happening. But it's essentially what the grant is seeking to do is to to to illuminate stories in Massachusetts that haven't been told. Stories that reflect the the cultural diversity of Massachusetts and the racial diversity and all of the diversity. And so the award amount, if we were to be successful in that application would be up to $20,000. So, that is something that I certainly would love for us to pursue the application hasn't opened yet so we at in a future meeting will look at that together. Did you say the name of the program that he he suggested. Yes, I'm so sorry I have it here and in a note and I'm trying to find where I wrote it down. Just give me one quick second here and maybe I'll be able to find it. It's not yet on their website. Oh wait, here we go that's that's fine I'm just I found it curious that I found it curious they would, you know, like fund it, you know the, I think that's great. You know, that's great I just was curious what the name was of the program. Well do even when I send you everyone the KP law, I'll send the name of the program in the email so you can look into it. Yeah. So, so that and what Brian also did was he made a connection with me to me with a board member of mass humanities, who was is apparently a retired but very well known filmmaker, because one of the things that we'll want to do is to find in partnership with Amherst media and our other partners will want to find filmmakers who do specifically do this sort of artistry that we would hope to have for this project. So, I didn't I, I guess the if there's a vote or an action that I would want to take it would be just, I'm going to go ahead and pull up the documents that the Amherst Cultural Council sent. I just want to make sure that I have approval from you all to go ahead and accept the $500 grant that we were awarded. And I have to fill out some paperwork on behalf of the HRA in order to do that so I do think given that there's money involved having us vote on that would be a good, a good practice for us here so let me just see here. Just if you could give me one second. Here is our packet and I'm going to share our screen, share my screen. Okay, share screen. Let's see here. Okay, so. Okay, so this is our award letter. In the packet there and this, I think is when sort of once we are more complete, let me just see there's a grant agreement that's what it is that I need to be authorized, I would like to be authorized by you all to to sign this so I'm going to go ahead and make a motion here, which I do not have prepared. But the motion is going to be that a hra someone else have any language that they can come up with herb. If you're really good at this is an acceptance of a grant aid. Yes, I need to accept this grant and being it needs to authorize you to sign. On behalf of the age are a perfect okay so the motion we have to authorize to sign accept and fulfill the requirements for the grant. Well, the next step, I didn't make a specific emotion, I'm just saying those two things have to be included. So everyone wants to make a specific motion for the first part. Yes, is that we accept the grant. We can go ahead and do that and then for the second. If people want to offer up other language in terms of the motion then feel free to do that. So we could do the motion and then I have a question and I'll ask my question after the motion. So I move that. Oh, sure. Yes, I'm going to type it up, or as you speak. I move that we accept the grant from the. So we're going to do that as one motion and then move on to the second motion. Correct. Okay, so do we have a second for this motion. And then we'll do discussion. I'll second the motion. Thank you, Ivan. And then I think you said you had a question. So please. I do have a question on that grant is only for one year. It has to be spent by December of 2022. It's not a lot of money, but will we actually begin working on this enough to be able to be reimbursed for the $500 this year before the end of December 2022. December 2022. Yeah, that's a really, really good question. And I would hope that we would have some something to spend that money on before December 2022, that would maybe be foundational to the bigger project. So I don't know, I can't, I don't have any ideas right now about what that might be, but I would hope so. Yeah, I was just saying once we accept it then we are determined to spend that money is what I'm saying so we should as a group decide or understand that there has to be some expenses like you said, even if they're preliminary. And even if it's, you know, I don't know what the parameters are of what the grant was that was written, but I don't know if it's like we can spend the money on researching a filmmaker, or, you know, I'm not sure that that we can use it as a deposit to hire someone. I'm just saying that that in some way, and I don't know if it's you, or maybe the committee as a whole figures out a way to legitimately use that money for this project with it before December of 2022. Absolutely. And what I can do even is get a copy of our application and include that in our next packet so that we can or the next time we're going to discuss this so that we can look at what ideas might spur out of what was included in that application. Okay, great. Any other questions before we take a roll call vote on this. All right. So I am going to start with you Hala. Lord, I. Excellent. Irv. Ivan. Ivan, I. And Miller, I. So that is unanimous. And then we. So our next motion or. Was. Move fix. So, move to authorize the chair of HR a to accept. And sign the, let's see, what was that. The Amherst school council grant agreement. Right. Okay. Do we have a second. I'll second that. Thanks, Yvonne. And any discussion on this. Okay. If there's anything else that's being done. Then I will start with myself this time and Miller. I. Yvonne. Yvonne, I. Irv. Irv on. Hala. Lord, I. Thank you. Okay. So that is unanimous. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I will have a full application in our next packet. And I will also. Provide more details in our next meeting about the mass humanities grant. As well as providing what information I have jotted down and an email to you all before them. Okay. So let's see here. If there aren't any other questions. Comments. Oh, okay. All right. So I am actually going to make the decision here. To move past D. Because we didn't have really any resources that assembly members sent in. What I'd like to do is just use this as an opportunity to remind us that we have a lot of resources. That are available in relation to the school. To a place of work, anything that might be helpful. We're starting to have traffic. I have learned that from people who have started to come to the website and to the resources page and are finding it to be extraordinarily helpful. Thank you so much, Jennifer, for setting it up. It looks awesome. I think people are really starting to, to be drawn and attracted to it. And so whatever we can do to add to it. To help educate our community. And then we'll come back to that at a next meeting to approve anything. So you can go ahead and you don't even have to include me. You can literally just send whatever you have to Jennifer, feel free to copy me if you want, but. And then we'll get it approved for next time. So our final. Item for tonight's agenda is the crests forum. I wanted to give us a little opportunity. I'd love to hand it over to Jennifer, actually, if she'd be so willing. I know you've been up since five 15. Just maybe five minutes to say how you feel it. When and give this, um, this, uh, assembly and update. And then if anybody else who attended wanted to make some comments, that would be great. You're muted, Jennifer. Of course I'm muted. Can you stop the share? Um, yeah, I think so. Oh, I thought you meant stop recording. I was like, I don't know. No, I don't want to just stop the share so I can. So we can go back to seeing everybody. Yes. Um, so tonight's crests, I will say tonight's crests. Implementation community form for the community. Responders for equity, safety and service went really, really well. We had a decent size, um, participant amount of participants. So I think the first time we had a community form, we had maybe less than 10, but we had 23 at, at the peak. So that's really, really good. Um, it means that the word is getting out and that, um, we had some really valuable input. So, you know, part of it is this is a community based department. That's being implemented by town and some community members, but it, it's really helpful to have the feedback, the concerns and the questions from the community. So please help spread that word and any input that you hear, you know, just forward it over to me because it's all valuable and it's all helpful. You know, we can only think of so many scenarios. And even though we think of the scenarios, every, you know, it's one of these circumstances similar to everybody's going to fall between the cracks of the scenarios that we're using for guidelines. And those are the things that we are looking for, um, really to, to move forward. Um, you know, the rest of it, we haven't started the crest director. Is the hiring committee has been formed and so hopefully we'll be interviewing for the crest director within the next two weeks. The implementation project manager, which is a temporary position through, um, a DPH grant that we've received is, um, the interviews for that are for tomorrow. So that position will help come up with matrix to help us measure, um, the effectiveness of the program. So that's, it's, it's a really important, um, component. And so, uh, yeah, um, we'll probably work, we're working on job descriptions for the community responders, but we won't finalize those until the director because they hopefully will know best. Um, and we're really at this moment just trying to have a baseline because the director is going to come in and they're going to need to come in with their foot running, but they're coming in running to a department that isn't really existing. And so we're trying to get as much done as we can and then as the group. And then they can say yay or nay to it. You know, we can leave the data to them. So it's, it's a moving along and for, you know, it's our alternative policing department and, and it's, it's moving pretty well. It was pretty, we had a really good attend, you know, I'm not a folks who attended. I'm a little bit shot at this point now, but that's okay. Yeah. No, thank you. That was, that was great. And just by the way, your presentation was awesome. That was so helpful. My speed reading. Well, you know, you had people there waiting. They were knocking on the door. They wanted to speak. Um, Hala, please. Yeah. First, first and foremost, I just want to say thank you to Jennifer. She wears so many hats for this town and we are so blessed, whether it's Kwanzaa MLK CSW, all of the different hats. So thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely. 100,000%. And maybe this doesn't belong here. It's sort of, it's not a mea culpa, but I did ask a question tonight, but I think I didn't form it right because I didn't find the answer. And I'm just thinking of like Orlando Taylor in Springfield, who had mental health issues, but also had a knife. So he did end up stabbing officer, but ended up killed. And the grandparents were like, grandmother's like, please don't kill. So I asked the police department, can you, we not have press responders and the police department. And I understand a thousand percent why they're like, no, we have to make sure it's safe before we bring you all in. But I'm, I'm still wrestling with how can we or could we potentially bring in both in a way that keeps the mental health professionals safe, but also might inform some of the situations. So someone doesn't end up dead when they're just really super. Yeah. So there's a couple of things to that. We talked about that further once. I think you'd already left to come to. A HRA, but so one of the things is in that circumstance, they're. This, the social service agency that was helping that individual was found that there was a, that wasn't working out. Right. So that is a, a, a sign or symbol of our broken systems. Right. And, you know, the fact that they have to come in voluntarily, like, yeah, but you do realize that people, a lot of people with mental health issues don't feel like they have mental health issues. That's part of the problem. Right. And so that was one piece of it. And then. When we first started thinking about and designing when the community safety working group first was thinking and designing. Crest, they wanted it to be completely separate from the police department. And they worked on calls that they could respond to. Without needing PD. At all. Right. And so that was the lens that we've been using. But between today and some other scenarios, because I remember one day we were talking and I said, you know, but if, if there's like a suicide, I, and I understand that's a crime and PD needs to be there. And whether that is suicide, you know. Actually results in a death or not. There are family members or roommates or other people. And there's other people around that could utilize crest. So once we were determined that it's safe. We should be able to bring in crest to help support. The family, whomever needs to be supported there. Right. Because there's, there's that's hard. Right. And so the same thing comes in handy for violence or, you know, issues when someone has a weapon. The other piece of it was, you know, when we were here in Amherst, we have a, a pretty good idea of who's whom and who needs what. And so it could very well be, you know, and this is why dispatch is so important that somebody could call and say, you know, there's this guy, but we, but the dispatch knows that's Tom and dispatch knows that crest has been working with Tom for months. Right. And, you know, maybe they say he has a weapon. But it's, it's, it's, it's an opportunity for both to be sent out at one time. So it's again, it's built as one of the scenarios that are going to, as we go along, we'll find out. And as the director comes on board and finalizes things, we'll know more, but it'll, it'll be one of these things like once crest is well rooted in the community that some of those things, they will be able to move a little bit more forward in assisting with the police. And it's, you know, there's a, there's a legal issue with just sending crest to something where there's like a weapon, right. And so PD has to go. And a lot of it is also dependent on folks understanding, like PD understanding, like this is something I don't need to be at crest can be here and crest realizing that this has the potential to be a crime. This is, there's evidence of a crime. This has the potential to be coming violent and knowing when to call PD or AFD. So they will be working really all closely together. And, and, you know, we're all very excited. Have I said that before. Jennifer, I wasn't able to attend. One of the things that is important for the group to understand is that this is a startup operation. So when you have a startup operation, one principle always is in play. And that is if it can happen, it will happen. Yeah. And so you need to plan for all of that. And the third thing is that the community. Needs to be prepared. For things going to ride. That, you know, stuff happens. You know, the dispatch makes an error. And then go things go wrong. But, and so things are going to go wrong. But that doesn't mean that the program is, is not right. But the community needs to be prepared for that. Yep. We actually had, thank you for bringing that up. We actually had. Counselor Walker open up with that statement there that this is really, you know, we are just starting something brand new. And then my presentation kind of ended on that note where. This is something new and it's going to require patients and for everyone to be. You know, it's this is new and it's going to be a tough one to. To get through. I, you know, the one thing that I keep in mind is that, you know, it was supposed to end at the, you know, the, the matrix time was supposed to start in February and we were supposed to do some kind of matrix for. I think it was the end of the fiscal year, which even still seems short. But I think at this point, everybody realizes that we will not be able to make. A good. Have a good matrix, even within a year. Right. Because we're going to. Combined. We're going to figure out what to do with the students, like how do they come into play? The on-campus students with this program, are they coming up? There's just so much. And so I appreciate you already being aware and conscious of the fact that this is, this is the beginning and there's not a roadmap because we're the first in the area to really get this far with that. Right. And the other thing is that the program is only as good. As good as we can. As good as we can. And so I think that the program will function is only as well. As the training and expertise of the dispatch. Yeah. And, and the responders. So I think we're trying to hire for. Social workers and for community leaders. Right. Just people who have relationships that apply that are in the community to. And then they will be trained on de-escalation and they will be trained on de-escalation. And so what we're trying to do right now is the input from the community. So. And I think to add to that, the support as much as possible from the community, you know, I think. What herbs said and what you're saying is, is so true. I mean, really this is historical. What you all are crafting and creating and designing. And you know, you know, we have staff there that's kind of a, innovative and new, and people will be watching and, and probably already are. And, you know, there will be mistakes and there will be room for. For changes and improvement, but I just want to encourage us to at the forefront and really supporting the people who are working to make this happen and collaborating in such challenging circumstances. I mean, with all new transparency here, I mean, it's not easy for the police department and the fire department and then the alternative, you know, policing all sort of coming together. And what I witnessed at that meeting tonight was it's just a really beautiful sense of cooperation and collaboration, even though there wasn't full agreement on everything. So that was healthy to see that it wasn't like fully all like smooth, you know, sailing. So, but it- And that inflammation team itself has come a really long way too, right? Like, so it's just been all very, very good to see how, you know, everybody wants this to happen. It's more of like, how do we make it happen? Yeah, yeah. Well, Jennifer, if there's anything that we can do as a committee, and I mean, I speak for myself and anyone else can speak, but I really want to just support the work and getting the continued community engagement and getting the support that you all need to sort of get to keep the resilience that you already have going. Yeah, I mean, but, and it's very interesting because Amherst is in the forefront of a lot of things right now because equally new is reparate, you know, and moving forward with reparations is pretty big too. So we have a lot of cutting edge things going on in regards to equity right now through the town of Amherst, which is a beautiful thing and I'm more than honored to be here with you guys working on it and with the implementation team. Yeah, Jennifer, you know, I really appreciate everything that Chris is doing and also given my experience of being in a number of startup operations, how exciting it is on the one hand and how utterly frightening it is on the other hand. And that the number one lesson I've learned from it is that there are no failures, it's just opportunities to learn. And otherwise that the team doesn't keep that in mind, the going forward, you get crushed. You're morale and everything is crushed by the momentum of the forces that you were trying to control. And they cannot all be controlled. No, no, they can't. Yeah. Words of wisdom, I love that. All right, well, thank you for sharing. Are there any other comments or questions or just anything? Okay, so then we can move on to our second question. Public comment period. And since we do have one person in the audience, I will read the statement. During the public comment period, the co-chair will recognize members of the public. When called on, please identify yourself by stating your full name, pronouns, and residential address. Residents are welcome to express their views for up to three minutes at the discretion of the chair based on the number of people who wish to speak. No speaker can cede their time to another speaker. The AHRA will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during public comment, but we will be listening and paying very close attention. So if you would like to make public comment, please go ahead and raise your hand. And wonderful, Mara, I'm gonna bring you in. And if you could just state your name and where you're from and make your comment. I'm Maura Keene from South Amherst and this has all been very interesting. I was just wondering what you people were up to in your committee and I saw you were on the agenda for Monday at Town Council. So I'm glad I got to join in and see your plans, especially the information on the Cress program that that's moving along is very heartening to me. And I'm sorry it's gonna take you another year and a half to straighten all this out, but other than that, congratulations on making progress. Thank you, Maura. And thanks for coming tonight. All right. So we do not have anyone else in the audience. And so moving on to, are there any member reports? If you have a report that you'd like to offer, just go ahead and raise your hand. Okay, great. And in terms of upcoming agenda items and meeting schedule, let's start with determining our meeting, our next meeting. And I don't know about you, but I've really been appreciating the every two week schedule. It's been really manageable. And so if we were to stick with that, our next meeting would be February 3rd. I'd like to start at 6.30 if there aren't any conflicts with that. Does that work for everybody? Hala. Yvonne, how does that work for you? I'm checking. Hold on a second. Oh, no problem. Yep. And also Jennifer, I should have asked you first. Is that night okay? Yeah, I feel a little bit out of the loop having missed like the last two, three meetings, man. I got to do the minute, so I'll figure out. Someone's going to have to do that, right? Okay. So you'll watch the video or whatever. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that, that date looks fine to me. Okay. Perfect. Irv, does that work for you? I believe so. Okay. I don't have anything. The only thing there is that there are all these other sub committees I've been assigned to the school community. I have no idea what those meeting dates are going to, going to date. Fair enough. Yeah. I sort of was in that boat too. I don't know if that works for you. I don't know. I don't know if that works for you. And some things got figured out, but if something, let me know if you get a conflict and. And we'll figure something out. And Jennifer, that works for you. Okay. All right. So are there. Any agenda items that people want to make sure are on our next agenda item? If there's something, and if you don't know tonight, you've got some time, just send me. If you have anything specific that you really want to make sure I know for sure that we're going to. Go deep into, I hope to go deep into our community engagement and education process. And I have had some conversations. That I will want to report back on. And I'll also look at the other agenda items. You know, I do have, you know, Councilor Ball-Mill about the community engagement process that she was, was working on with some folks at UMass. And so have some interesting information from that meeting. And I'm also working on a concrete plan for us. So that we can really get going. Okay, so if there are no other topics that I haven't anticipated, so I am going to adjourn this meeting at 16pm, and I thank you all, and see you all soon. Thank you, Michelle. Bye bye. Thank you, bye everybody.